Raytheon Aircraft is to abandon the Hawker Horizon name for its super mid-size business jet and is to market it as the Hawker 4000.
The company also used NBAA to announce another new model, the Hawker 850XP -¬ an upgrade of the successful Hawker 800XPi - at a briefing this morning.
President and general manager of the Hawker business, Brad Hatt explained why the Horizon name is to be chopped. “Using the product model number fits better into the way we name our aircraft and how we can designate upgrades,” he said.
Delays have plagued the Horizon project, with certification originally expected in 2001, although it was granted provisional approval in 2004.
Complete
Hawker executives said today that it is now in the final stages of the process, carrying out flight into known icing conditions and testing function and reliability with final type certification expected within the next few weeks.
“We can see light at the end of the tunnel and there is no disaster coming,” Hatt says.
Talking before NBAA, he said the transition to the 4000 should remove any of the negative connotations associated with Horizon. “After all, it is a superb airplane,” he said.
“It has real ramp presence, it has outstanding performance and is a heavy iron designed airplane in a super mid-size body – it’s worth the wait. Now we are ramping up production,” he said. The aircraft is on show at the static park.
With 30 firm orders in place, Raytheon will complete 11 aircraft during 2006, 16 in 2007 and will then be in a position to deliver 24 in 2008 and 30 in 2009.
“Of course the delays affected us,” Hatt says, “But a lot of customers wanted to wait for it because it such a good aircraft.”
It is believed that 150 orders were originally made, but many – including major fractional operators – stepped back as the delays wore on. Raytheon is confident that once the aircraft is operating many will come back.
Hawker sees the 4000 as a market leader. It has coast-to-coast non-stop range in nearly any expected wind situation. Six passengers can be carried 3,000nm (5,550km) at Mach 0.82 cruise speed and four passengers for 3,300nm at Mach 0.75. It has a 72in (183cm) stand-up cabin and a 77.5in width. The Pratt & Whitney Canada PW308A engines deliver 6,900lb (30kN) of thrust each and can climb from sea level to 37,000ft (11,290m) in just over 13min and can cruise at Mach 0.84.
Better
The flight tests are showing the 4000 as performing at least 15% greater in some areas than its original Horizon guarantee.
Meanwhile, the launch of the Hawker 850XP sees the introduction of winglets to the Raytheon fleet. The winglets are designed and built in Raytheon’s own composites plant in Wichita and enhance both aerodynamic performance and ramp appeal say the company, which decided to build the winglets in-house rather than using its previous supplier, Aviation Partners. “We have already built winglets for the 350 and the 1900D, so it was a business decision”, says Hatt. “The new winglets are retrofittable to earlier versions of the 800XP”. The performance improvements include a further 100nm to range – about 4%- and an 8% improvement to climb speed.
The aircraft will also include an upgrade to the market-leading Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 and an updated cabin.
More good news for Hawker 850XP owners is a reduced scheduled maintenance interval period from 300h to 600h, which will reduce maintenance costs and downtime.
Source: Flight Daily News
